Rowen's Obsession
by CityBS
Summary: Rowen has a dangerous and deadly new toy. What will happen? Will Sage's car survive? Will Ryo and Kento ever figure out what's going on? Will Cye ever sleep again?
1. Chapter One: The Evil is Revealed

Disclaimer: I don't own shit, except for my dear kitties =^_^=.  Got that?  Although I'd love to own these guys, I don't.  But hey, I can dream, can't I?!

**Rowen's Obsession**

_Chapter One – the Evil is Revealed_

Rowen's face lit up and he clutched his newly purchased box to his chest, bestowing love and protection upon the holy item.  He bounced out of the store, still clinging to the box and leaving the cashier scratching his head and wondering what the hell was wrong with kids these days.

During the entire ride home in Sage's Mercedes Benz, which he had conveniently 'found' the keys for in Sage's secret hiding place (made especially so Rowen would never find it) and had promptly taken.  Rowen kept the box pressed to his chest, driving with one hand and not paying any attention to the numerous curses and middle fingers that were directed his way due to his reckless driving habits.

He finally pulled up to the house that Mia and Cye had purchased for the ronins, and promptly knocked over both the mailbox and the garbage can, spilling trash over the front of Sage's shiny green car.  He didn't care.  He hopped out, leaving the keys inside the car, and scrambled to the front door, bashing it open and nearly taking it off of its hinges.

Kento, who was in the kitchen with his 'snack', briefly saw a streak of blue and black, and shrugged helplessly, figuring that Rowen was home.  He heard stomping on the stairs and then a door slamming shut, and nodded to himself.  "Yep, Ro's home," he muttered, resumed consuming the mountain of food that was piled on the table in front of him.

Meanwhile, Rowen had locked the door to his room and was clearing away a space in front of his television.  This was a difficult task, considering that Rowen was not one for neatness, and the last time his room had been cleaned Cye had literally used a bulldozer (how he got it upstairs, nobody wants to know).  After a few minutes, he finally had a place to sit.  He plugged in his Playstation and turned on his TV, an expression of absolute awe plastered on his face.

___

A few hours later, Rowen heard yells of rage, and then a sound like someone trying to break down the door to his room, but he didn't pay any attention because he was so engrossed with his wonderful new game.

In truth, it was Sage, who had discovered that not only was his car filthy, but that the keys were also locked inside of it.  He was definitely not happy about this, and the normally passive ronin had gone quite berserk.  Kento and Ryo had needed to drag him away and calm him down after Sage had almost smashed through Rowen's door.  At the moment, Sage was glaring at the stairs, sitting in the living room with a cup of tea, surrounded by his fellow ronins.

"He will die." Sage growled, taking a sip.  Ryo glanced over at Cye, who shrugged.  Sage smoldered in rage, and kept at his tea.  "Uh, what's he doin', anyway?" Ryo asked after a second, scratching his head.  Sage blinked.  "I have no idea."

Kento rubbed his chin and got up from the couch where he was sitting, and started up the stairs.  Ryo followed.  They got to the hallway and briefly saw a flash of blue hair and black clothing dart into Rowen's room.  The door to Ryo's room was open.  Ryo's eyebrow rose questioningly as the lock to Rowen's door clicked.  He wandered to his room and peeked in.

His room looked like a tornado had hit it.  Wait, make that several tornadoes, a hurricane, and a tidal wave, followed by several high-scaled earthquakes.  Ryo's eyes bulged out in shock at the sheer messiness of his room.  Then he noticed something.

"Dude!  My PS2 stuff is gone!" he said, looking very unhappy.  Kento poked his head in and nodded.  "Well, I guess Rowen got another video game." He said glumly, holding up one of Rowen's many gaming magazines, which had a huge ad for new games on it.

Ryo grumbled a bit and then went back downstairs, followed by Kento.  The ronins sat in the living room and just watched TV and tried to keep Sage from destroying Rowen's door for the rest of the night until going to bed.

Cye, whose room was right next to Rowen's, could not sleep.  He lay on his bed staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes for hours, kept awake by the infernal beeping and dramatic music from Rowen's video game.  He was starting to get very grumpy.  He tried earplugs, but the noise was too loud.  He tried pushing his head under pillows.  It didn't work.

He had tried both at the same time, and even that did nothing to dim the insanely annoying and repetitive sounds.  So the Brit tossed and turned all night, and was eventually reduced to reading his high school textbooks to pass the time.

It was a very, very long night for poor Cye.

The next day passed in a similar manner, with Rowen barricaded into his room and effectively driving his comrades totally nuts.  Mia, unfortunately for them, was taking a trip to southern Japan to visit relatives.  The warlords would probably not be any help either, for they were busy getting drunk and gambling in Toyama, and all together enjoying life as they had never been able to before.

Then Monday came.  Rowen, never one to miss school, showed up downstairs for a three-second breakfast and then ran out the door before the other ronins could catch him.  Sage, being the ever-thoughtful one, tried the door to Rowen's room.  It was locked, of course, for Rowen had foreseen Sage's idea.  The ronins had no way to get to the evil Playstation console that they each so desperately wanted to destroy, and Mia had told them a thousand times not to use their attacks or armors inside the house.

So Sage, Cye, Ryo and Kento tromped off to Kento's van, which was on its last legs of life, or so said Cye and Sage.  Kento and Ryo loved the way that it bounced and shook whenever it moved, due to the multiple missing parts and the nearly-shot engine.

The muffler didn't work either.

When they got to school, they went their separate ways to their classes, Ryo heading to science, Kento to gym, and Sage and Cye to an advanced math course.  Before they entered the room, Cye put a hand on Sage's arm.  Sage looked at him, arching an eyebrow.  "Rowen's in this class, remember?  He got switched in." Cye pointed out glumly, glancing into the classroom to see Rowen sitting in the back, hunched over his books.

The blond groaned and rubbed his forehead, already getting a migraine.  "Lovely.  Just lovely," he muttered, heading into the class.

Rowen spent the entire period giggling insanely (and quietly), bended over his desk and staring intently at something.  Cye managed to get a peek at it.  It was a jewel case that read "Total Destruction, Massive Graphic Violence, Fuzzy Animals and Armageddon".  Cye blinked.  _Odd,_ he thought.

Cye fell into his own thoughts, not really awake enough to listen to the teachers' lecture about derivatives, which was obvious if you looked at the bags under his eyes caused by two totally sleepless nights.  _What's my next class…?  Gym, yes, that's it.  Who's in it?  Katie, John, Daniel, Amanou, Christine, Rowen… Rowen?  Yes, Rowen's in my gym class…he started to chuckle evilly, glaring at his math workbook and imagining what he would do to Rowen._

When the first period let out, Rowen was the first out the door.  This involved him jumping over several students, desks, and piles of books and a final somersault that landed him out of the room.  Sage shook his head, rolling his eyes, and popped a Tylenol for his insanely horrid headache.

Cye rubbed his hands together maniacally, looking decidedly psychotic and evil.  Sage edged away from him and gathered his books.  Cye waved to Sage and then scooted out of the classroom, knocking people over and looking for all the world like some demented crab on a kamikaze mission.

The British boy quickly changed in the gym locker room, and then exited into the gym, giving Rowen an evil, toothy grin as he left.  Rowen didn't notice, for he was busy worshipping his video game.

When the entire class, even Rowen, had gathered in the gym, the teacher announced that they would be playing dodge ball, all the while giving terrified looks at Cye, who was meaningfully beating the crap out of some punching bags that were hanging in the corner and was smirking back at the teacher.

Rowen and Cye, of course, were put on opposite sides.  When the game started, the students were effectively chucking the balls at each other with no problem.  Then Cye started to get into it, and was hurling shot-puts at Rowen's head.  Rowen was a little shaken, and was ducking them as quickly as Cye threw them.  He grasped the CD in his hands tighter and prayed to his patron god of video games that Cye had not gone totally berserk on him.

___

Well, Cye ended up in the principal's office for attacking another student, and Rowen was sent home with the worst bruises the nurse had ever seen and a bloody nose.  Rowen, surprisingly, was actually very pleased with this outcome, and bounced outside the school and dashed down the road towards the ronins' house.

Cye glared out the window at him, ignoring the principal's long, whiny speech about respecting other students.  He really wasn't interested.  He shifted his death gaze to the man, who stepped back in surprise.  "Er," the principal started, only to be cut short by a letter opener slamming into the wall next to his head and burying itself halfway into the concrete.  He stared at Cye fearfully.

"Do not patronize me, please.  I don't like it." Cye said sweetly, looking like some beast out of the pits of hell.  The principal nodded in fear and whimpered, glancing at the letter opener.  "I am going to go sleep outside now.  Is anyone going to stop me?" Cye said menacingly.  "No, no, no, Mister Mouri," said the principal, who was now a quivering lump of fear.  "Good.  I am not going to be marked as cutting, isn't that right?" Cye added after a second.  "Of course not, sir," the man replied weakly.

"Good."

Cye prowled out of the office and left the school, receiving many astonished looks from his peers.  He went over to the picnic tables, dropped his bag and used it as a pillow, and started to sleep, content for the first time since Rowen had purchased the evil, corrupting video game.

___

Later that day, after school had let out, Ryo and Sage made a decision.  "We've got to do it, dude," Ryo said, explaining the plan to Kento, who was very skeptical of the idea.  "I dunno, Mia's gonna be mad at us." He replied, looking worried and running a hand through his hair.  "She'll have to deal with it.  I can pay for the damages that are caused." Sage said, smirking slightly.

"I… guess so," Kento said, looking helpless.  Ryo put his fist into the air and grinned.  "Yes!  Let's get going, I think they'd be available right now." He said, beaming from ear to ear.  Kento's forehead wrinkled for a second.  "How're we gonna get there, Ryo?" he asked.  "We take my other car, Kento," said Sage, pointing at the student parking lot where his 'backup car', a very expensive convertible, was parked.

"Sweet!" Kento yelled, and ran towards it, closely followed by an equally enthusiastic Ryo.

Meanwhile, Cye was still resting peacefully on the picnic tables with a huge smile, and Rowen was beeping and destroying away inside his wonderful world of video games, oblivious to the horror that Sage, Ryo, and Kento were planning to bring down upon him.

***

*You are brought before the Almighty Authoress' Secret Writing Lounge (AASWL) and you are greeted by comfy sofas, complete with ronins, and CityBS sitting on a very cool-looking and poofy recliner.*

City: Mwah!  What are they planning?  Why are they being so stupid?

Ryo: I'm not stupid… *sniff*

Sage: Yes you are, Ryo.

Ryo: Am not!

Sage: And childish, too.

*sounds of fighting*

City: *rolls eyes* You're all childish.

Rowen: *gaming*

Cye: Ssnnnrrrkk…

Kento: Cye?  Buddy?

Cye: MRffhshhh…

City: *pats Kento* He's asleep, big guy.

Kento: Oh.  I thought he was dyin' or something.

City: Anyhoo, what will I do to these guys next?

Sage: Hopefully nothing.

City: Aww, I love you to much not to torture you.

Ryo: Dude, that's sick.

City: *beams* I know!  As for the readers out there, have fun… more chapters will be forthcoming!

Ronins that are awake: Nooooooo!

Cye: Kkkkhhhhhhgggg…


	2. Chapter Two: Enter 'Chaos', Stage Left

Disclaimer: I like 'Nubis, I like Sekhmet, I don't own an-y-thi-ng… la la la la…

**Rowen's Obsession**

_Chapter Two – Enter 'Chaos', stage left_

An annoying pattern kept hitting poor, nearly catatonic Cye's face as he lay on the picnic tables outside the school, still snoring away.  What was it?  He really didn't care, and just kept on sleeping through it.

That is, he did until a bolt of lightning nearly took his head off.

"YAAAAAAAAH!"

___

Sage sat hunched over the wheel of his convertible, trying to resist the ever-growing urge to strangle Kento, who was singing 'I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves', and had been singing it (off key, no less) for the past two hours.  God damn all traffic jams.  Why the hell did the stupid truck driver feel the need to jackknife another car and cause a massive pileup right on the main highway to Toyama?!  Of course, it was all a plot against him, though…

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves…"

The blonde's face began to turn red with rage.  Was the ever-patient Sage beginning to actually lose it?  The infernal singing continued.  Finally, Sage whirled around in his seat and grabbed the front of Kento's shirt in a very violent and non-friendly manner.  "Shut up.  Or I'll drive your head through the leather top of this car, and you can stay that way for the rest of the drive.  Am I understood?" Sage hissed, his eyes blazing.

Ryo, who was in the passenger seat, stared wide-eyed at Sage and Kento.  Man, this whole Rowen mess was getting waaaaaay out of control… he'd be happy when it was all back to normal.  As Kento and Sage had a little spat, he turned on the radio to a local news channel and sat back in his seat, only half-listening as he tried to ignore the Kento/Sage mini-brawl.

"…The tractor-trailer accident on the Toyama Highway was apparently caused by four slightly sadistic men in strange clothing wielding large ancient weapons.  When we, TRS, exclusively interviewed one, he said only this: 'We were bored, it was something to do.  Ha, ha, ha.'  Oddly enough, the man had green hair.  Back to you, John!"

The three ronins froze and stared at the radio; Sage trying to strangle Kento, Kento trying to breath and pull out a crowbar from the back of Sage's car, and Ryo cringing away from the two others.  They looked at each other.  Then back at the radio.  Then at each other.

"Well damn," Kento finally said, then laughed, but was cut off by Sage's hands tightening on his throat.  "Those stupid bastards… they shall pay…"

Ryo gently pried Sage's hands from Kento's neck, and then gestured to the road.  "Hey, look, Sage… the emergency crew and tow trucks are finally here.  We'll be moving soon!"

The radio buzzed again.  "…and the delay on the Toyama Highway is expected to last at least three more hours.  In other news, a heavy lightning storm is headed towards the suburbs of Toyama…"

"I hate you, Rowen.  I hate you so much."

___

With the other ronins stuck in traffic or caught out in the rain, our very own Rowen Hashiba was free to do as he pleased.  And, of course, that involved just one thing: "Total Destruction, Massive Graphic Violence, Fuzzy Animals and Armageddon".  The sacred game.  The very meaning of his core existence.

Other than jelly donuts, of course.

But, at the moment, Rowen was completely at peace.  He had a box of jelly donuts the size of a file cabinet, he had his room, and he had TDMGVFAA.  Yes, life was good for the little blue-haired demon.  Even Whiteblaze seemed happy.  He had killed three rabbits that day.  The big kitty was tearing them apart into little tiny strips of flesh on Rowen's bed, specifically on top of his planet-and-space-print comforter.  Yes, Whiteblaze was indeed happy.

Ignoring the corpses and giant tiger on his bed, Rowen simply concentrated on his wonderful little TV set and his game.  Niggling in the back of his mind, however, was something that could be called a 'conscience' in other people.  However, in Rowen's case it was more of a 'too much chaos to be healthy for my gaming plans advisor'.

And his 'advisor' was telling him, however quietly, that he was probably very screwed because Cye wasn't yet home.

___

Cye tromped towards the house that he had helped to buy, covered head to toe in mud.  Not just any mud, mind you, HIGH SCHOOL mud.  If you don't know the deadly properties of High School mud, I don't want to be the one to give you nightmares about it… just be assured that it's far more deadly and harder to clean than normal mud.

He slammed open the front door, causing several pictures to fall from their wall hangings as a result of the force.  He headed for the bathroom and grabbed a bundle of towels on the way, and a clean set of newly-laundered clothes from the laundry basket outside the bathroom.  He slammed that door shut and locked it, not even bothering to look for the blue-headed maniac.

___

"…and that's the story.  Will you help us?" Sage finished, glancing at the warlords.  Pressing a cold pack to a blossoming black eye, Anubis scowled.  Sekhmet, putting antiseptic on a few new cuts, grumbled.  Kale, passed out on a couch, did nothing.  Dais, complete with a few new bruises, glared.

They, along with Ryo and Kento, were sitting in the warlords' flat in the upper section of Toyama.  They were sprawled around the living room, which was spacious, and would be called tastefully furnished had it not been for Kale's giant, bright blue beanbag chair.

The bearers of Wildfire and Hardrock bit their lips in apprehension at the warlords' delay in response.  "Maybe Sage shouldn't have gone all berserk on them…" Kento whispered to Ryo, watching the injured and very annoyed warlords (at least the conscious ones). "I think he even gave Kale a concussion."

Dais, Sekhmet, and Anubis exchanged glances.

"Well, what have we to lose?" Sekhmet muttered.  "Just our sanity," Anubis said dryly.  Dais smirked and added, "And quite possibly our lives if Mia finds out."

"She won't find out, guys," Ryo said hastily, smiling in an extremely fake and obvious way.  "I promise!"

The warlords looked at each other again.  "Sure, why not?" Anubis said, then winced as Kale sat up abruptly and hit his arm on Anubis' black eye.

"TO INFINITY, AND BEYOND!" Kale shrieked, before falling back onto the couch and starting to snore again.

The ronins and warlords just stared.

___

Finally clean and in warm, non-muddy clothing, Cye rubbed his wet hair a few times with a towel making it stick up all over.  He smiled in a tired fashion and sat down on the couch, totally exhausted.  He sat for a while, his eyelids slowly drooping further down as he sat.  He was about to fall asleep, when…

BOOM!!!

An explosion shook the house, and Cye unceremoniously fell of the couch and onto the floor face-first.  "What the…?"

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!  ATOMIC AND HYDROGEN MISSILE VERSUS DUST BUNNIES FROM MARS LEVEL!!!!!!" The crazed, joyful yell emitted from upstairs… from Rowen's room.  Cye sat up with his back against the couch and scowled angrily, the dark bags under his eyes accentuating the slightly demonic look that crossed his normally pleasant features.

"That's it.  He's got to bloody well go."

Cye headed for the kitchen.  Well, actually, he headed for the knife drawers of the kitchen.  The butcher knives.  The really, really dangerous and sharp ones.  The Brit grinned maniacally and lifted a large cleaver out of the drawer with a glint in his eyes.

___

Outside the house, a dark blue pickup truck, Sage's convertible, and a black sedan pulled into the driveway.  Out came the other ronins and warlords.  In full armor, of course.  None of them would ever dream of challenging a donut and video game crazed Rowen without full armor.  What kind of warriors would they be if they even gave such a thing a second's thought?  Not very good ones, I'd say.

Ryo jogged to the door and pushed it open, and the rest of the group followed him, trying to shield themselves from the heavy rain.  Kale had, of course, finally woken up, and could apparently remember nothing of his brief 'episode' as Buzz Lightyear.

After stepping into the nice, dry, warm house, they glanced around, the warlords at the point positions.  Sekhmet's attention was caught by movements on the stairs, and he raised an eyebrow.  "Wow.  I could swear that was Cye up there on the landing looking like a homicidal freak and holding a probably very sharp cleaver and heading towards Rowen's room."

The rest of the small party immediately looked up to the landing, where, sure enough, the eloquently described Cye was standing.  "Cye!  Calm down, buddy!" Kento said loudly, trying to go up the stairs slowly.

Cye, finally noticing his visitors, glared and pointed down at Kento.  "NO!  No more!  I can't take it any longer!  Must kill!"  With that, the bearer of Torrent let out a strangled battle cry and ran towards Rowen's room.

The warlords and Sage followed out of curiosity and interest.  Ryo and Kento followed out of concern for Rowen's well being and for Cye's ever-fragile sanity.  "Well," Dais said with a grin as he unsummoned his armor, "This is sure to be a good show one way or another."

***

*You are brought this time before the Almighty Authoress' Special Kitchen.  Only the warlords are seen here with City this time.  Anubis and Kale sit on the counter, Dais leans against the fridge, and Sekhmet is ransacking the pantry after finding snake treats.*

Sekhmet: OOooh!  You have the limited edition mongoose flavored ones!

Anubis: …Sekhmet, you really scare me sometimes.

Sekhmet: And they were half off! *GASP*

City: Yeah, yeah, Sekky.  You can have them all if you want.

Sekhmet: *teary eyed* Oh, Sparky will be so happy! *runs off with the box*

Dais: …That entire event isn't worth my witty commentary.

Kale: Yes!  And we shall save the universe!  Er, I mean, we shall eat potato chips until we bust!  *munches a Huge Bag O' Chips*

City: …Whatever.  Anyhoo, I know this chapter was kinda short… but I wanted to post SOMETHING to let people know I'm still alive.

Anubis: Why didn't you just stay inactive?  Why?!

City: Because I love you guys, that's why.  Now stop complaining.

*In the background comes Ryo's voice: CYE!  NOOOOOO!  DON'T KILL HIM!)

Warlords: *sweatdrop*

City: Aaaaand that's all the time we have for today… see ya, folks!

   
*The Kitchen fades to black.*


End file.
